So much news to note!

Links of Note:

• Turkish singer defiant in court - A transsexual Turkish singer is on trial for publicly making comments criticizing Turkey's military. What makes this story fantastic is that Turkey is a society in which a flashy transsexual can become a star but is also a society in which can be legally tried for questioning the government.
• Google In Quotes - A new (temporary?) tool from Google that lets you compare quotes from the presidential candidates in which whatever word you search for appears. I received no quotes on "pizza."
• Shipping containers could be 'dream' homes for thousands - Another example of how creative engineering has the potential to improve people's quality of life.
• Campbell Brown Rips McCain Camp's "Sexist" Treatment Of Palin - I've bemoaned the sexist attacks on Sarah Palin lobbed by many liberals...but Campbell Brown rightly points out the fact that the Republican party likewise treats her not as a worthy politician, but as a "delicate flower."
• Evangelist: 'Puberty' is age of sexual consent - Considering that I know girls as young as 8 who have reached puberty, I have to say that Tony Alamo is batshit crazy. We live in a world in which physical maturity does not at all equate mental maturity, and our laws regarding sexuality and consent should reflect as much, in my opinion.
• The White Dude Knows Best approach to women's health - I'm just going to lift a quote straight from the article: "Compulsory or coercive sterilizations for low-income women, disabled women, and women of color were extremely common up until the 1970s, and slightly less common but nevertheless occurring with regularity the the decades since. The paternalistic attitude that "certain women" cannot be trusted to make their own reproductive decisions is still an underlying theme of a lot of backwards legal and policy decisions."
  See also: State Boys Rebellion
• A Wish List for Young Parents - Again I'm going to directly quote this article: "A lot of criticism capitalizes on this trend, saying in effect 'Hey, unwed mothers! If you had more money, childhood poverty would be less of a problem!'"